QA chosen to deliver Leadership Academy for Socitm

Socitm, the professional association for digital leaders in local public services, has today announced it will partner up with QA to offer its largest and most comprehensive approach to leadership development.

The association has chosen QA, the leader in IT and business skills training, to run its highly successful Leadership Academy, which has seen over 200 professionals from the public sector complete its programmes – helping to shape and enable tomorrow's leaders to realise their capabilities.

In response to its successes, and by incorporating programme places into its corporate membership, Socitm is aiming to put over 200 people a year through the Academy.

Three programmes are available: Empowering Women in a Digital World (EWDW), aimed at aspiring female leaders predominantly from the public sector; Senior Leaders, a new one-day workshop aimed at driving the cultural change needed to enable the best business-focused outcomes; and Top Talent, which offers public sector delegates leadership training and coaching.

These programmes are designed to help organisations tackle skills shortages, improve succession planning and retain top talent.

In addition, QA will provide on-site training for organisations that opt for Socitm's top-tier Executive membership. Executive members will be able to choose from a comprehensive suite of courses according to their specific needs.

QA will also continue to deliver monthly webinars for Socitm members. These webinars will focus on leadership areas to help members develop the skills and behaviours necessary to fulfil their leadership potential.

Former Socitm president Nadira Hussain has been appointed as the association's new director of leadership development and research, which will include leading the work of the Leadership Academy.

Hussain stepped down in March from Socitm's board of directors after seven years as a non-executive member. During her tenure as president in 2015-16, she set up the Women in IT initiative and was the creator of the EWDW programme, which has transformed the lives of many participants.

Hussain said:

"I'm delighted to re-join the board of directors and lead the work of the Academy to support the development of compassionate, inclusive and effective leaders at all levels. The Academy has achieved so much since it was established in 2015 to build better leaders for the digital world. I feel privileged to lead its next chapter and I'm looking forward to working with colleagues across the Socitm community to ensure we continue developing great leaders who put citizens at the centre of everything they do."

Lisa Harrington, Managing Director – QA Learning, said:

"QA is delighted to be partnering with Socitm, supporting such an exciting range of leadership programmes. We look forward to enabling the development of digital leadership capabilities, in order for individuals to fulfil their potential and organisations to be successful in the modern world."

Registrations for all courses open on 1 November 2018. To find out more about the range of services the Leadership Academy offers, or to register interest, visit www.socitm.net.

About the Socitm Leadership Academy

The programmes available in 2019 are:

• Top Talent – instils self-awareness, confidence, and management skills, as well as helping to bring clarity on career progression
• Empowering Women in a Digital World (EWDW) – focuses on self-awareness, beliefs, values and behaviours, where they come from and how they impact on career and life decisions
• Senior Leaders – a new programme providing the practical tools and techniques to help drive the cultural change needed to enable the best business-focused outcomes

About QA

QA is one of the largest learning services organisations in the UK, developing skills and capabilities for everyone from apprentices to business leaders. With learning centres throughout the UK, QA delivers an exceptionally broad training curriculum to meet the needs of individuals and corporate businesses.

With a client base covering 80% of the FTSE 250, and employing over 300 instructors, subject matter experts and learning professionals across a portfolio of 1,500 courses, QA is currently the number one provider of technical and business training in the UK. More information is available at www.qa.com.